Relax...

Yesterday's post. Lacking.

I remembered reading this lovely lady's post and re-read it again. Wise words. I admit, I stalk the blogs of those from my past. It's complimentary, right? I only read the interesting ones. Smirk.

Today I tried to focus on positivity. I've been changing a lot. The time period I'm thinking is from high school to college, then college to newlywed, then newlywed to non-newlywed. Yes, a lot of changing happens. In high school I was outgoing and seemingly confident. Sure, I had all the regular teenage issues, but I enjoyed spending time with people. In college, I somehow became ridiculously shy. I came out of college with several amazing and wonderful friends, but there were a lot of missed opportunities. Newlywedded life. Adventure in and of itself. There was one low point (revolving around... drumroll... $$$) but that lasted one conversation, then we calmly talked things over, dipped slightly ($300) into our savings, and came out far on top of the situation. I began venturing out into the world again and trying to not be so stinkin shy. To present day, my friend and I had dinner tonight and she said I was so independent. Me? Independent!!! Laugh! But, I have grown much more independent than previously.

All that to say, in high school and college I always thought up the worst case scenarios. The most memorable was when I asked my dear friend, Savannah, what I would do if my husband was in an accident and lost both of his arms and legs and our kids were in college and I didn't work. Yes, that was a legit worry of mine. Not really a worry, but I would think of horrible things like that. Lately I've been much more positive about life. Probably because I've been happier. No, not everything in life is perfect. That would be death. But those bright spots in my life I mentioned in my last post? They are VERY bright. Very bright indeed.

New topic: I mentioned my sister-in-law is expecting. This has caused me to re-evaluate my name choices for my future children. I want to have 5-6 kids. Part of me wants to try to carry them each myself (if we are blessed to have biological children), but of course, I want to adopt as well. So maybe have three if possible and then adopt a few more. With this growing family plan, I have the opportunity to get more creative with baby names! Yes, I take into consideration that these will not just be their baby names, but their names when they are old and wrinkly as well. We have a few that we both agree on and will definitely use. We have a few that I LOVE and Matthew despises. We have a few that he adores and I'm only ok with: examples Soren and Baine. Of course, if we had five girls or five boys... that would complicate things! We can agree on a mixture, but coming up with five of each that we both are ok with? Seemingly impossible. In any event, we don't have to begin planning quite yet... but baby names are so much fun to play with. I used to write stories using all the names I loved. My favorites when I was younger were Kora Anne, Marley, Macie, oh goodness... mind blank on the boys names! I wrote several stories about a family with 4 girls and 2 boys. Oh well, I'll find the stories someday. I still like those names. Kora is a family name. I really like Korali... but Matthew says no. I tried for Korin (like the Horse and His Boy)... and Matthew still said no, even that's one of his favorite Narnia books. The name of the game is agreement, agreement is the name of the game.

Another thing, what about namesakes? Good, bad, corny, necessity? I always thought my first little girl would be a namesake for my best girlfriend. I originally wanted Madison Rose or Madalyn Rose. Matt hates both of those. So for our first choice for a girl I wanted Rose to be a second middle name. He hates that idea as well. Maybe I'll just have to force the mommy card on that one. I thought using "Rose" for a girl (Abby's middle name) and possibly Jonathan for our first boy could be a possibility. Yeah, Matthew doesn't agree. I thought something like Eloise and calling her "Loey" after Matt's mom would be adorable. Nix. We will be doing the first born Iveson male tradition of the father's name being the middle name of the child. Unfortunately, Matthew goes with everything! So I can't say "But ____ Matthew just flows!". I really like the name Jayme for a boy and Ryanne for a girl... but Matt's sister's name is Jamie and my brother-in-law's name is Ryan. So mixing those may not work so well.

Yes, I put a lot of thought into this. I was a Family and Child Development major after all! What else is there to do besides think up cute baby names? Kidding.

One last bit on baby names (this wasn't even on the roster for this post!): Since I was seven I loved Isabella. I planned to call her Issy. From Avonlea. Shot to the ground. Another reason why I don't care for Twilight. Same goes for Maddie and Emma though... popular names. Why is it that every time I think of something super cute... it becomes a fad? That's why our two favorite girls names (currently) are being kept mum until we know the gender. Yeah, like I'll last that long! But it's wishful thinking at this point. Maybe we'll get lucky and have twin girls like we want! Then we can use them both!

Good gracious. And to think I was tired this morning. I think I'm much more a night owl.